# 12 Best ElevenLabs Scribe Alternatives (2026)

> 12 verified ElevenLabs Scribe alternatives in Speech-to-text APIs, led by Deepgram. Compared on real production cost and per-use-case verdicts. Updated.

ElevenLabs Scribe is speech-to-text api from elevenlabs: scribe v2 for batch transcription and scribe v2 realtime for live captions in 90+ languages.. Teams that switch usually cite price at production volume, streaming latency for live agents, self-hosting and license control. The alternatives below are ranked by published head-to-head verdicts, not sponsorship.

## Where to switch, by reason

| Switching because of | See |
| --- | --- |
| price at production volume | [Azure AI Speech (STT)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/developers/) |
| streaming latency for live agents | [Cartesia Ink](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/voice-agents/) |
| self-hosting and license control | [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/self-hosted/) |
| dictation | [Moonshine](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/dictation/) |
| medical | [AssemblyAI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/medical/) |

## The ElevenLabs Scribe alternatives, ranked

| # | Tool | Positioning | vs ElevenLabs Scribe | Best if you need | Price | Rating |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepgram/) | Developer-first realtime STT API for voice agents and transcription at scale | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. | developers, self-hosted | See pricing |  |
| 2 | [AssemblyAI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/assemblyai/) | Accuracy-led voice AI API for developers and voice agents | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. | call centers, medical, self-hosted | See pricing |  |
| 3 | [OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisper/) | Low-cost pay-as-you-go file transcription from OpenAI; no first-party streaming or diarization | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~35% fewer languages. | medical, self-hosted | See pricing |  |
| 4 | [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voxtral/) | Low-cost EU-based transcription API with Apache-2.0 open-weight models | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. | developers, medical, self-hosted | See pricing |  |
| 5 | [Amazon Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/amazon-transcribe/) | AWS-native STT API with deep AWS ecosystem integration and compliance coverage | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~25% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 6 | [Aqua Voice](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/aqua-voice/) | AI-native system-wide dictation (YC W24) with a developer speech API (Avalon) | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | From $8/mo |  |
| 7 | [Azure AI Speech (STT)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/azure-speech/) | Enterprise-grade STT inside the Azure cloud ecosystem | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~65% more languages. |  | From $1,600/mo |  |
| 8 | [Cartesia Ink](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/cartesia-ink/) | Streaming STT for voice agents with native turn detection | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $5/mo |  |
| 9 | [Cohere Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/cohere-transcribe/) | Enterprise-grade open ASR for accurate batch transcription | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 10 | [DeepInfra (ASR)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepinfra-stt/) | Low-cost hosted ASR inference |  |  | See pricing |  |
| 11 | [Distil-Whisper](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/distil-whisper/) (OSS) | Distilled Whisper: near-Whisper accuracy at a fraction of the size and up to 6x the speed, English-only, MIT-licensed | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 12 | [faster-whisper / whisper.cpp](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/faster-whisper/) (OSS) | The de facto local Whisper runtimes: faster-whisper (Python/CTranslate2) and whisper.cpp (C/C++) | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 13 | [FunASR / SenseVoice (Alibaba)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/funasr/) (OSS) | Open-source industrial ASR toolkit | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 14 | [Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gladia/) | EU-based real-time and batch STT API built on the Solaria models | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 15 | [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/google-stt/) | Hyperscaler STT API with Chirp foundation models and enterprise compliance | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~40% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 16 | [OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gpt-4o-transcribe/) | Flagship GPT-4o based transcription API from OpenAI | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~35% fewer languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 17 | [Gradium Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gradium-stt/) | Low-latency STT for voice agents | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | From $13/mo |  |
| 18 | [xAI Grok Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/grok-stt/) | Low-cost hosted STT API on the Grok stack | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 19 | [Groq (hosted Whisper)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/groq-whisper/) | Ultra-fast, low-cost hosted Whisper transcription API (no realtime streaming) | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 20 | [Handy](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/handy/) | Private local-first open-source dictation | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 21 | [IBM watsonx Speech to Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/ibm-watson-stt/) | Enterprise cloud STT API | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 22 | [JigsawStack Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/jigsawstack-stt/) | Whisper-based STT endpoint inside an indie all-in-one small-model AI API platform | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $27/mo |  |
| 23 | [Kyutai STT](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/kyutai-stt/) (OSS) | Streaming-first open STT for self-hosted voice agents | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 24 | [Lemonfox.ai](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/lemonfox/) | Cheapest hosted Whisper large-v3 API for batch transcription | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $5/mo |  |
| 25 | [MacWhisper](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/macwhisper/) | Local-first macOS transcription and dictation app with one-time Pro pricing | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 26 | [Microsoft MAI-Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/mai-transcribe/) | Frontier-lab accuracy STT delivered through Azure Speech | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 27 | [Monologue](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/monologue/) | Context-aware Apple dictation by Every | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $14.99/mo |  |
| 28 | [Moonshine](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/moonshine/) (OSS) | On-device streaming STT for live voice interfaces, from tiny edge models to Whisper Large v3-beating accuracy | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 29 | [NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/nvidia-parakeet/) | Open-weights, GPU-accelerated self-hosted STT stack | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 30 | [Picovoice (Leopard / Cheetah)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/picovoice/) | Private, on-device STT SDK for apps and edge devices | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 31 | [Qwen3-ASR](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/qwen3-asr/) (OSS) | Open-weights multilingual ASR models | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 32 | [Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/rev/) | Transcription-heritage STT API with low per-hour pricing and open (non-commercial) Reverb models | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~35% fewer languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 33 | [Salad Transcription API](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/salad-transcription/) | Ultra-low-cost batch transcription on a community GPU cloud |  |  | See pricing |  |
| 34 | [Sarvam AI (Saarika / Saaras)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/sarvam-stt/) | Indian-language sovereign speech-to-text API | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 35 | [sherpa-onnx](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/sherpa-onnx/) (OSS) | On-device ASR/TTS runtime for edge and embedded |  |  | See pricing |  |
| 36 | [Smallest.ai Pulse](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/smallest-pulse/) | Ultra-low-latency multilingual STT for voice agents | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 37 | [Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/soniox/) | Ultra-low-cost multilingual STT + real-time translation API | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~35% fewer languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 38 | [Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/speechmatics/) | Accuracy-first enterprise STT with flexible deployment (SaaS, container, on-prem) | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~40% fewer languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 39 | [Superwhisper](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/superwhisper/) | AI voice-to-text dictation with context-aware formatting modes | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $8.49/mo |  |
| 40 | [Together AI Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/together-stt/) | Low-cost hosted Whisper STT API | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 41 | [VoiceInk](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voiceink/) | Open-source, local-first Superwhisper / Wispr Flow alternative with one-time pricing |  |  | See pricing |  |
| 42 | [Vosk](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/vosk/) (OSS) | Lightweight offline STT toolkit for edge and embedded devices | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: about half the languages. |  | See pricing |  |
| 43 | [WhisperKit (Argmax)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisperkit/) (OSS) | On-device Apple Silicon STT (Whisper) | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $1,330/mo |  |
| 44 | [WhisperX](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisperx/) (OSS) | Whisper + forced alignment + diarization pipeline for accurate word timestamps |  |  | See pricing |  |
| 45 | [Willow Voice](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/willow/) | Cross-platform AI dictation with smart formatting and enterprise-grade privacy | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $15/mo |  |
| 46 | [Wispr Flow](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/wispr-flow/) | System-wide AI voice dictation with auto-editing | vs ElevenLabs Scribe: ~10% more languages. |  | From $12/mo |  |

## How the top ElevenLabs Scribe alternatives compare

The top 6 in depth: where each alternative ranks across the Speech-to-text APIs field we track, which use cases it takes from ElevenLabs Scribe, and what switching gives up.

### 1. Deepgram

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, Deepgram has the 26th-widest language coverage.
In our published verdicts, Deepgram beats ElevenLabs Scribe for developers and self-hosted and matches it for dictation.
The reverse angle matters too - ElevenLabs Scribe vs Deepgram: ~2× the languages.
Published pricing starts at $0.0043 per audio-minute (batch), verified July 2026.

**Why teams switch (Self-Hosted):** For self-hosted deployment, Deepgram is the clear winner. Deepgram offers a self-host and on-prem option, while no such capability is documented for ElevenLabs Scribe. This is the single heaviest attribute in this use case, weighted 5 out of 5. Neither tool has published information covering open weights license, hardware requirements, maintenance status, or model parameters, so those attributes cannot differentiate the two. Because Deepgram explicitly supports on-prem deployment and ElevenLabs Scribe does not, Deepgram wins decisively on the criteria that matter most here. [Self-Hosted verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-elevenlabs-scribe/)

**Overall verdict:** Deepgram wins two of the three use cases and ties the third, giving it a clear overall edge. For developers, Deepgram offers a much broader SDK ecosystem covering JS/TS, Python, .NET, Go, Java, and Rust, versus ElevenLabs Scribe's two-language offering. Its free tier delivers $200 in no-expiry credits with no credit card required, making experimentation frictionless. It also supports 100-plus audio formats and offers up to 150 concurrent websocket connections on a pay-as-you-go plan. For self-hosting, Deepgram is the only option, as ElevenLabs Scribe offers no on-premises deployment path. Deepgram also provides a HIPAA BAA without enterprise gating, which matters for regulated workloads. Streaming costs about $0.29/hr versus ElevenLabs Scribe's $0.39/hr, adding further advantage at scale.

Deepgram cost: Published rates: batch $0.0043/min · streaming $0.0048/min, verified Jul 20, 2026.

| Monthly volume | Batch bill | Streaming bill |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1K min/mo | $4.30 | $4.80 |
| 10K min/mo | $43 | $48 |
| 100K min/mo | $430 | $480 |
[Full Deepgram vs ElevenLabs Scribe comparison](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-elevenlabs-scribe/) · [Deepgram review](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepgram/)

### 2. AssemblyAI

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, AssemblyAI has the 12th-widest language coverage - a fit for multilingual and localization projects.
Our use-case verdicts have AssemblyAI ahead of ElevenLabs Scribe for call centers, medical and self-hosted and matches it for dictation.
AssemblyAI lists $0.0035 per audio-minute (batch), verified July 2026.

**Why teams switch (Call Centers):** For high-volume call center transcription, the three heaviest attributes all favor AssemblyAI. On batch price, AssemblyAI charges $0.0035 per audio minute versus ElevenLabs Scribe at $0.003667, a meaningful difference at scale. Speaker diarization is a paid add-on for AssemblyAI at about $0.02 per hour, but it is included in ElevenLabs Scribe's base price, which partially offsets the batch rate gap. AssemblyAI supports 200+ concurrent async jobs versus ElevenLabs Scribe's 8 concurrent STT requests on base plans, a critical advantage for high call volumes. AssemblyAI also includes sentiment analysis natively, which ElevenLabs Scribe does not list as available, directly supporting QA and analytics workflows. The concurrency gap alone would create serious bottlenecks at scale for ElevenLabs Scribe. [Call Centers verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-elevenlabs-scribe/)

**Overall verdict:** AssemblyAI wins three use cases to ElevenLabs Scribe's two. In Call Centers, it offers 200+ concurrent async jobs versus ElevenLabs Scribe's 8 concurrent requests, a massive throughput advantage. In Medical, AssemblyAI includes a HIPAA BAA as standard while ElevenLabs Scribe restricts it to enterprise plans. In Self-Hosted, AssemblyAI offers an on-premises deployment option that ElevenLabs Scribe does not publish. ElevenLabs Scribe holds a narrower third-party WER of 2.18% versus AssemblyAI's 3.02%, and wins Developers and Voice Agents, but those two wins cannot overcome AssemblyAI's advantages in compliance, scale, and deployment flexibility.

AssemblyAI cost: Published rates: batch $0.0035/min · streaming $0.0075/min, verified Jul 20, 2026.

| Monthly volume | Batch bill | Streaming bill |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1K min/mo | $3.50 | $7.50 |
| 10K min/mo | $35 | $75 |
| 100K min/mo | $350 | $750 |
[Full AssemblyAI vs ElevenLabs Scribe comparison](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-elevenlabs-scribe/) · [AssemblyAI review](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/assemblyai/)

### 3. OpenAI Whisper (API)

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, OpenAI Whisper (API) has the 21st-widest language coverage.
Head-to-head, OpenAI Whisper (API) takes medical and self-hosted from ElevenLabs Scribe and matches it for dictation.
Before switching, weigh what stays behind - ElevenLabs Scribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API): ~60% more languages.
Its published rate is $0.006 per audio-minute (batch), verified July 2026.

**Why teams switch (Self-Hosted):** For self-hosted deployment, the two heaviest attributes are whether a tool can be self-hosted and whether it ships with an open-weights license. OpenAI Whisper wins both decisively. ElevenLabs Scribe has no self-host option, making it a cloud-only service. Whisper publishes its model weights under the MIT license, so teams can run it on their own hardware with no per-minute costs. ElevenLabs Scribe charges $0.004 per audio minute at batch rates, a cost that accumulates indefinitely, whereas a self-hosted Whisper deployment pays only hardware costs. On the two attributes that carry the most weight here, Scribe scores zero and Whisper scores the maximum possible. [Self-Hosted verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-whisper/)

**Overall verdict:** ElevenLabs Scribe wins four of seven use cases by combining superior accuracy, richer features, and competitive pricing. Its third-party word error rate of 2.18% beats Whisper's 4.06%, a meaningful gap that drives its wins in call centers, meetings, and voice agents. Speaker diarization is included at no extra charge, while Whisper offers none at all, which is decisive for meetings and call-center transcription. Scribe also supports 90 languages versus 57, adds a websocket streaming API that Whisper lacks, and accepts files up to 3 GB compared to Whisper's 25 MB cap. Batch pricing is actually lower at $0.004 per minute versus $0.006. Whisper takes medical thanks to a broadly available HIPAA BAA and wins self-hosted scenarios via its MIT-licensed open weights.

OpenAI Whisper (API) cost: Published rates: batch $0.006/min, verified Jul 20, 2026.

| Monthly volume | Monthly bill (batch) |
| --- | --- |
| 1K min/mo | $6 |
| 10K min/mo | $60 |
| 100K min/mo | $600 |
[Full OpenAI Whisper (API) vs ElevenLabs Scribe comparison](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-whisper/) · [OpenAI Whisper (API) review](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisper/)

### 4. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, Mistral Voxtral Transcribe has the 37th-widest language coverage.
Head-to-head, Mistral Voxtral Transcribe takes developers, medical and self-hosted from ElevenLabs Scribe and matches it for dictation.
Before switching, weigh what stays behind - ElevenLabs Scribe vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe: ~7× the languages.
Its published rate is $0.003 per audio-minute (batch), verified July 2026.

**Why teams switch (Self-Hosted):** For self-hosted deployment, the two most critical factors are whether self-hosting is possible and the model weights license. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe explicitly supports self-hosting and on-premises deployment, while ElevenLabs Scribe offers no such option. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe also ships under an Apache-2.0 license, giving users full freedom to run, modify, and distribute the model on their own hardware without restrictions. ElevenLabs Scribe has no published open weights or permissive license. Both top-weighted factors point decisively to Mistral Voxtral Transcribe, making it the clear winner for any team wanting to run speech transcription on their own infrastructure. [Self-Hosted verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-voxtral/)
[Full Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs ElevenLabs Scribe comparison](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-voxtral/) · [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe review](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voxtral/)

### 5. Amazon Transcribe

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, Amazon Transcribe has the 3rd-widest language coverage - a fit for multilingual and localization projects.
Before switching, weigh what stays behind - ElevenLabs Scribe vs Amazon Transcribe: ~20% fewer languages.
Its published rate is $0.006 per audio-minute (batch), verified July 2026.
[Amazon Transcribe review](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/amazon-transcribe/)

### 6. Aqua Voice

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, Aqua Voice has the 28th-widest language coverage.
Before switching, weigh what stays behind - ElevenLabs Scribe vs Aqua Voice: ~2× the languages.
Its published rate is $0.0065 per audio-minute (batch), verified July 2026.
[Aqua Voice review](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/aqua-voice/)

Source: https://www.versusref.com/stt/alternatives/elevenlabs-scribe/